Three Dark Crowns by Kendare Blake Review

Three Dark Crows in a YA fantasy novel in which three triplets are born to the royal family, each one a daughter and each with a different gift - being part of the naturalists, poisoners, or elementals. They then must fight to the death to determine who will be queen on their 16th birthday. I haven't had the chance to read a YA fantasy series in awhile with more than a couple of books available, so I was really excited to dive into this book!

What I enjoyed about this book:

- The plot! It does have a bit of a slow start, but once it gets going, this book is absolutely enthralling and I couldn't put it down. I also can't wait to see what comes next over the next few books.

- The characters! Throughout the entire plot, I was rooting for each of the main characters and also really appreciated some of the primary side characters. While I did feel like the cast was a little too cluttered (more on that in the next section), I enjoyed each of the characters who had a prominent role.

-The worldbuilding! I absolutely love the basis of this world. It isn't overly complicated (made even better by the fact it uses some usual YA tropes in interesting ways), but it feels vivid and I did find myself really interested in the politics and religion of the world.

Aspects of the book that weren't for me:

- The pacing. This is probably my biggest complaint about the book - the first half of it is just way too slow. As mentioned above, the plot does eventually pick up and, by the end, I really enjoyed it. However, it just takes way too long to get to that point.

- The way the worldbuilding is written. As mentioned in the previous section, I really enjoy the basis of this world and all the little details in it. However, infodumps are often imbedded within dialogue and, because of that, sometimes the information felt out of place when coming from certain characters.

- The cast. While I really enjoyed some of the characters individually, the cast as a whole felt a little too cluttered and I struggled to remember each of their names and positions. By the end, I was remembering them a bit better, but too many of the side characters were just too sunken into the background of the story.

Overall, I had pretty high hopes for this book and was a bit let down. While I did really enjoy the end of the novel, the overall experience was just okay for me. That being said, it was still a fun read and I'd definitely recommend it to anyone looking for a newer YA fantasy series. I'm also still really looking forward to reading the next few books in this series. Due to my somewhat mixed experience with the book, I gave it 3 stars.

TW: Violence, murder